Jonathan Boff, Spectator
The pace of technological change was dizzying, says Nick Lloyd, and by late 1918 the Allies' sophisticated tactics brought total battle defeat for Germany
John Andrews, Project Syndicate
With internal Hashemite family strife spilling out into the open, Jordan's Western allies suddenly have yet another reason to worry about the Middle East. The factors behind the imbroglio are complex and not entirely clear; but there is no question that the challenges to stability in Jordan are mounting.
Andrew Desiderio, Politico
He reshaped the federal judiciary. He made history as the longest-serving Senate GOP leader. But Mitch McConnell has unfinished business more than 8,000 miles from the halls of Congress.
Edward Lucas, Times of London
ix years after it invaded Ukraine, Russia is at it again, menacing its neighbour and undermining the security of us all. The record build-up of 85,000 troops, plus thousands of tanks, missile trucks, armoured vehicles and long-range guns now deployed on Ukraine's borders and in the territories that Russia prised away in 2014, are a formidable arsenal. But why are they there?
R Feinberg & B Gedan, WPR
Pro-democracy activists once held up Latin America as a crowning achievement, a region notorious for 19th-century caudillosand Cold War military strongmen that was almost universally electing its leaders by the early 1990s. In 2001, the Western Hemisphere's premier political institution, the Organization of American States, adopted the Inter-American Democratic Charter, which commits members to uphold and defend democracy.
Jonathan Hackenbroich, ECFR
The European Council on Foreign Relations' Task Force for Strengthening Europe against Economic Coercion brings together high-level European public and private sector actors to analyse a range of policies Europe could adopt to improve its resilience. Drawing on this systematic consultation process, the ECFR toolbox analysed concrete options for the EU to resist economic blackmail and punishment such as Chinese sanctions, and to avoid them...
Richard Javad Heydarian, National
"Whoever is lord of Malacca has his hands on the throat of Venice," observed the 15th century explorer Tome Pires. Within his lifetime, his native Portugal and rival Spain would effectively divide the world between themselves under the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494. The treaty sanctioned Portuguese conquest of countless ports across the Indian Ocean while Spain devoured those in the Pacific.
Mariam Memarsadeghi, Hill
Like other totalitarian regimes, the Islamist theocracy ruling Iran pays lip service to democracy with elections and other trappings of popular sovereignty, but only for the veneer of legitimacy. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rules absolutely. Potemkin elections — such as the presidential election coming up in June — serve to distract from a repressive state that with each passing year is more...
Jonathan Schanzer, Foreign Policy
Palestinian legislative elections are scheduled for May 22. Whether or not the vote takes place, finally scheduling elections was nothing short of remarkable. Palestinian politics has been in gridlock, with elections suspended since the terrorist group Hamas won a parliamentary majority in 2006. The stalemate gave way to civil war in 2007, during which Hamas conquered the Gaza Strip and the Palestine Liberation Organization clung to power in the West Bank. Читать дальше...
Huang Jing, Nikkei
The idea left in most people's minds, however, is not what the dialogue actually achieved, but the drama of the bickering and recriminations between Chinese Communist Party Politburo member Yang Jiechi and his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Brigitte Granville, Project Syndicate
Members of the EU establishment should not read too much into failures of "populist" governance. Until the bloc can devise institutional arrangements that allow for consistent, equitable growth, crises will keep coming - and so will anti-establishment challengers.
Fehim Tastekin, Al Monitor
On April 4, 104 retired Turkish admirals found themselves under fire for tacitly threatening a coup after they issued an open letter expressing concern over suggestions that Ankara could ditch the 1936 Montreux Convention amid government plans to build an artificial waterway parallel to the Bosporus Strait, which, along with the Dardanelles, forms the link between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Though the coup accusations hijacked the debate, the apprehension... Читать дальше...
Paul Pillar, National Interest
The picture of Iranian determination included in this postulation is at odds with most of the history of nuclear proliferation and how it has been much more a matter of calculations and reactions than of innate determinism.
Daniel Davis, 1945
The top objective of U.S. foreign policy - and the primary purpose of our Armed Forces - is to keep America and our citizens safe. Anything that needlessly increases the risk to our safety should be avoided and all that contributes to it firmly reinforced. The absolute worst-case scenario for U.S. security would be to fight a two-front war with both China and
Cristina Gallardo, Politico EU
LONDON — People in England will flock to the pub this week after a dry spell of nearly four months — but many will discover that their hostelry of choice remains shut.
George Friedman, Geopolitical Futures
Two concepts have been constantly used in discussions of international relations of late. One is a liberal international order and the second is a rules-based system. In the former, the term "liberal" does not have much to do with what Americans call liberalism. Rather, it describes an international system that is committed to human rights, free trade and related principles. The second is the idea that there is an agreed-upon system of rules governing the relationship between nations. Читать дальше...
Andrew Michta, National Review
COVID policy has mutated into a psychosis — one that ignores the reality that risk can be mitigated, but not eliminated.
Guy Chazan, Financial Times
It was never his "life plan" to try to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor, Markus Söder told a television interviewer on Sunday evening. But refusing to do so now, he had concluded, would just be "ducking my responsibility".
FDD
In the Soviet Union, all media were controlled by the state, and foreign correspondents were severely restricted. Those who hoped — and perhaps believed — that freedom of speech and freedom of the press would be guaranteed to the people of post-Soviet Russia have been disappointed.
